The 2018 Course of the school of brain cells and circuits will be dedicated to the sensory-motor system. Bottom-up models, from cellular and molecular biophysics, and top-down models, derived from neuropsychology and non-invasive brain measurements (mostly brain imaging using MRI), are both needed to integrate the micro-, meso and macro-scale of brain organization and to pilot future experimentation. This year the course will focus on the sensory-motor system, involving the neo-cortex, basal ganglia, cerebellum and spinal cord. Modeling local microcircuits properties as well as large scale network properties is essential to understand motor function and sensory-motor integration. The complexity of the sensory-motor system means that pathological changes of any of its parts are compromising people’s function. The course will conclude discussing the impact of modeling for neurodegenerative, vascular and neuroinflammatory and diseases.